[lbo-talk] Shot dead in London

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Jul 26 12:30:07 PDT 2005


James:
> The WEEK
> ending 24 July 2005
>
> Crime prevention and arbitrary government
>
> Following the execution of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes
in

James, the secret of good writing is the opening line that makes people want to continue reading (Orwell was quite good at that). The problem with the above is that it does the exact opposite - it makes a person want not to continue. Every normal person who understands the English language in general, and the meaning of the word "execution" in particular knows right away that the above is patently false when taken literally and used only for inflammatory and propagandistic purposes - which makes most people hit the delete button.

A better way of saying would be "Following the tragic/unnecessary death of Brazilian electrician..." - since it was a tragic accident and calling it "execution" serves no purpose other than pissing people off.

Wojtek



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